Devil Ball Golf

Tiger Woods struggles on Friday at the Memorial, fires third over par round of 2013

Considering what Tiger Woods has done during this 2013 season it's surprising to think that he was due for a bad round, but that's what happened on Friday at the Memorial.

Woods posted a round of 2-over 74, just his third round over par this year on the PGA Tour and tied his highest round of the season to date. At one point it seemed that Woods might miss the cut at the Memorial, a tournament he's won five times over the course of his career, but late birdies on the front nine par-5s at Muirfield Village got him back within the cut line but a late bogey has him at 1-over for the tournament, well back of the leaders.

What is different this week than the previous weeks where Tiger has been able to dominate golf courses? Unlike at times over the last three seasons, Tiger is hitting his tee shots fine, it's his iron game and putting that has deserted him. On Friday Woods hit all but one fairway, but hit just 10 greens and needed 30 putts, the second day in a row that he wasn't able to break 30 putts.

Tiger said after his round, "it's not that hard to make bogeys and doubles on this golf course," and that was apparent on the par-5 15th hole where Tiger jammed a seven-footer for par well past the hole, missing that one coming back and settling for a double-bogey.

It's also been strange the way Woods has finished his rounds this week at Jack's tournament. On Thursday it looked like Tiger would post a round of 2-under even without making much on the greens, but a bogey on the 18th forced him to settle for a round of 71. On Friday he clawed back over his final nines hole, but again it was a bogey on his last hole, the par-4 9th, that added a sour taste to his comeback effort.

These rounds are going to happen for Woods, even in his current form. Four wins this season is impressive, but Tiger is still going to have some rounds where nothing goes in or the irons are rusty.

As a friend said after Tiger finished, better to have it now than in two weeks at Merion.